Gulf Stream Shutdown

[jomtones]

This was a while ago but made interesting reading this morning - horizontal snowfall outside! Anyone heard of an update? Couldn't find any..


Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age - environment - 30 November 2005 - New Scientist

"The last shutdown, which prompted a temperature drop of 5°C to 10°C in western Europe, was probably at the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. There may also have been a slowing of Atlantic circulation during the Little Ice Age, which lasted sporadically from 1300 to about 1850 and created temperatures low enough to freeze the River Thames in London."

Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age - environment - 30 November 2005 - New Scientist:
"... prompted a temperature drop of 5�C to 10�C in western Europe, was probably at the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. There may also have been a slowing of Atlantic circulation during the Little Ice Age, which lasted sporadically from 1300 to about 1850 and created temperatures low enough to freeze the River Thames in London."

[biffvernon]

horizontal snowfall outside! Anyone heard of an update? Couldn't find any.

This is where it was snowing a few minutes ago: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/index.html

[2 As and a B]

Sharp today Biff.

[Andy Hunt]

[jomtones]

uh, yeah, thx!

now, about the gulf-stream?

[snow hope]

There don't appear to be any particular signs of the gulf stream/ North Atlantic Drift (NAD) slowing down, anything out of the ordinary at the moment. The trouble is we don't know a lot about what is ordinary as we haven't been monitoring it that long - few decades.

It could stop abruptly (a year or two) as it is believed to have done in the past, but there would have to be a cause for that to occur. Causes could be sudden fresh water ingress from severe melting of ice and snow in Greenland and/or the Arctic. Very unusual weather condition persisting for lengthy periods of time. Sudden geologic activity on a large scale, etc. Some events which we know nothing about at this point in time - unknown unknowns!

It is expected to occur some time, no doubt when we enter the next ice age, which is overdue, but it could be next year, 100 years or 1000 or even 5000 years from now. If it occurs, life will change for us in an extreme manner, which most of us may not survive. To survive, most of us would require to migrate South to the Med.